April 29, 2025 Orthodox celebrates Radonitsa (Radunitsa) – the day of commemoration of the deceased, parental day. How to spend this parental day correctly, what is categorically impossible to do, and what is necessary? A few tips.
How to remember the deceased to Radonitsa.
Since our prayer is more important for the soul of the deceased than any ritual in the cemetery, it is customary to start the day with a visit to the Divine Liturgy. Having come to the beginning of service to the temple, believers submit a note with the name of the deceased for his prayer commemoration in the altar during the liturgy. After the Divine Liturgy in the temples to Radonitsa, the Ecumenical or Parental Panichid is served. To Radonitsa, our ancestors came to the cemetery only after the church.
How else, besides prayers, you can remember the deceased relatives?
In addition to the magpie, the panachids, domestic prayers for the deceased by another means of their remembrance is alms. By alms, one must understand not only the supplies to the poor in memory of the deceased, but also wider – all good deeds, a good deed.
According to the church tradition, cemeteries are sacred places, they must be kept clean and manner. Arriving at the cemetery, priests recommend lighting a candle and making a lithium – a special prayer. You can also invite a priest to the cemetery. The deceased is remembered in silence and prayer, they take the grave.
The popular tradition to leave something from their Easter table in the cemeteries is closer to the pagan, and the priests recommend refraining from it. As well as from the commemoration of the deceased with alcohol or leaving a glass on the grave and a piece of black bread.
Should I set the table near the grave?
· For a memorial dinner, it is worth finding another place, as well as for the funeral.
· Fands and other treats that are worn in the cemetery, it is better to distribute to the poor near the entrance to the territory of the cemetery.
· What can not be done on parental day categorically – to drink alcohol near the tombstone, to arrange a feast, it is inappropriate.
A visit to the grave to Radonitsa is important both the deceased (evidence of the memory of it) and living. A trip to the temple, prayers, a family trip to the cemetery, warm memories – all this enriches the spiritual life of a person.
